Streaming device maker Roku beats quarterly revenue estimates

(Reuters) -Roku beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue and forecast second-quarter sales above estimates on Thursday, buoyed by strong ad sales and the ongoing shift to streaming from cable TV .

Shares of the company were flitting between gains and losses in volatile trading after the bell. They were last up about 2%.

Roku, which sells streaming devices and has its own free, ad-supported channel, has seen more people turn to its platform as major streamers such as Netflix increased prices and economic uncertainty pressured consumer spending. A shift towards subscription-based streaming services from traditional cable packages and the launch of third-party streaming channels, including Peacock, Disney+ and HBO Max, on Roku has also fueled user growth.

The company said year-on-year growth of "video advertising across the Roku platform outperformed both the overall ad market and the traditional linear TV ad market in the U.S."

Roku in April said it had identified a second cyberattack that impacted about 576,000 additional accounts while investigating a breach that affected 15,000 user accounts earlier this year.

The company posted net revenue of about $882 million in the first quarter, compared with analysts' average estimate of $848.6 million, according to LSEG data.

Roku forecast second-quarter revenue of $935 million, above analyst estimates of $931.4 million.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Shilpi Majumdar)